Three judges to appear in the dock over £12.6m legal aid fraud

Three judges are among nine lawyers arrested over an alleged plot to scam £12.6million from the legal aid system.

Part-time immigration judges Kareena Maciel and Rasib Ghaffar have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, along with part-time civil judge Razi Shah.

They will stand in the dock of a court, along with four solicitors, a barrister and a legal clerk who have also been charged over the plot.

‘In these cases, claims in excess of £12.6 million were made. A total of £1.4 million of public funds was paid out and it is alleged the majority of this money was fraudulently obtained,’ a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

Part-time immigration judges Kareena Maciel and Rasib Ghaffar also face court action

The others charged are legal clerk Gazi Khan, 49, barrister Shahid Rashid, 57 and solicitors Joseph Ameyaw-Kyeremeh, 67, Azhar Khan, 46, Lloyd Moody, 48 and Samira Bashir, 46.

The group, who are all from London and the Home Counties, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 17.

The Met Police said: ‘A total of nine people have been charged as part of a Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) investigation into a number of alleged fraudulent applications for the reimbursement of private legal costs from public funds.

‘The Met’s Complex Fraud Team began an investigation in December 2012 after Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reported a number of alleged fraudulent applications for legal costs made to the National Taxation Team (NTT).

‘The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised charges in respect of four of the claims made between January 2011 and September 2013.’

The group of judges and lawyers will all appear in the dock at Westminster Magistrates Court

Maciel and Ghaffar, both of South Woodford, Shah, of Windsor, Berkshire, and Ameyaw-Kyeremeh, of Croydon, have all been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit an offence of fraud by false representation.

Gazi Khan, of Isleworth, Middlesex, Rashid, of Langley, face three counts of the same charge.

Azhar Khan, of Pinner, Middlesex, has been charged with one count of fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to commit an offence of fraud by false representation.